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“Who’s my good girl?”
Sickly sweet pet-names and praise poured from Megan’s mouth, her words barely coherent. She felt a wet pink tongue licking at her neck, and the ginger girl giggled and resumed her previous motion on her stomach.
“Meg, will you stop playing with the damn dog for a second and come help me put this together?”
Megan frowned, rubbing the excited puppy’s belly a few more times before standing up and walking over to her girlfriend, the dog barked and followed, pink tongue sticking out of its mouth. Daniela was sitting on the floor of their living room, her back against the couch. Sprawled out on the rug covering the floor in front of her was a cardboard box, countless metal pieces and pipes, a handful of screws, and a large white paper with instructions in a language she didn’t understand.
Dani huffed, “Why the hell would they write this in Chinese?” she grumbled angrily, turning the instructions upside down like that would somehow help.
Last week had been the pair’s two year anniversary. Daniela, against her better judgement, had gotten a gift that she knew Megan had been wanting since she was a toddler, a Bernese Mountain dog.
She had dragged Lara and Sophia with her to a shelter, where they looked at countless animals before settling on the perfect one. Although she won’t admit it, Dani fell in love with the puppy as soon as she saw it. She played with the little dog while her and the woman who ran the shelter finalized the paperwork. It reminded her of her girlfriend in a way, impossibly energetic and playful – if not a little dumb.
She had talked Sophia into petsitting for her, just for a few days until Dani surprised Megan. She also spent those days collecting everything the dog would need. That, unfortunately, included one of those metal pet gates for the stairs in their loft apartment. The same gate that Daniela was currently struggling to assemble.
She exhaled harshly, throwing her head back in frustration. She tossed the instruction paper to Megan, who came to sit on the couch above her. “Do you know what any of this says?”
Megan stared at it intensely, racking her brain, trying to remember anything she learned from the Cantonese classes her mom had put her in in elementary school. “Umm, I think you have to put that,” she pointed vaguely at one of the white metal pieces, “together with that.” She motioned to another piece.
Daniela grabbed the pieces, mumbling under her breath as she tried to fit them together. Megan sighed unhelpfully and kissed the top of her girlfriend’s head, smoothing the girl’s blonde curls with her hand after.
After an hour, a lot of Google translate, and Megan getting distracted with petting the puppy a handful more times, they had finally assembled the gate and secured it to the bottom of the stairs. It sat, the door still swung open, in all of its glory.
Both girls sighed in triumph, high fiving each other over their victory. Basking in their accomplishment, together they made their way to the kitchen and started prepping dinner. It had become a tradition to cook together almost every night since they moved in. They found that it was the only guaranteed time they could spend with each other with their combined hectic schedules.
Megan was chopping up vegetables on a wooden cutting board while Daniela put together a sauce for the pasta they were having that night. A phone ringing, coming from another room cut through the comfortable silence that had previously formed.
“Oh shit, I think I left my phone on the bed, do you mind grabbing it for me?”
Megan hummed in response, setting down her knife on the counter. She walked out of the kitchen and towards the stairs, the puppy following her heels closely. She gently scooted the dog out of the way with her foot once she reached them, closing the gate behind her.
Once it clicked into place, she ran up the stairs and entered their loft bedroom, swiping Dani’s phone from the white duvet cover of their bed. The phone had stopped ringing at this point, she swiped up on the lockscreen, a picture of them together last winter in New York City, snow falling all around them, adorned in beanies and big jackets, Megan had one arm slung around the shorter girl. She glanced at the notifications and saw a missed Facetime call from Manon.
She slips the phone into the pocket of her baggy jean shorts, distractedly humming a song to herself, and walks down the stairs to rejoin Dani in the kitchen. At the bottom of the stairs, she paused.
Oh fuck, how do I open this thing.
She pulled the handle to no avail. She tried jiggling the top of it, like that would do something. She briefly weighed her options.
Well, I can just jump over it, right?
A very loud, very sudden THUD echoed through the apartment.
The little dog, who had been previously laying on her stomach in the living room, her head on her paws, looked up and let out a high pitched bark. Daniela whipped around trying to locate the source of the noise before stepping away from her cooking to see what the noise came from.
She looked down, only to see her girlfriend at the bottom of the stairs, lying face first on the floor.
Megan, voiced muffled into the hardwood floor, let out a very sad sounding, “owww.”
Daniela’s hand flew to her face, covering her mouth and trying her best to choke back a laugh. She, of course, failed terribly, not being able to stop the soft laughs that poured out of her mouth. Amusement and concern mixed in her voice like honey.
“Oh Meimei, are you okay?” She crouched down beside Megan, who was still pathetically sprawled out on the floor. Megan grumbled in response.
“Don’t laugh at me.” She flipped over, laying on her back instead. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Megan looked up at the older girl, faux anger displayed on her face. “That stupid gate…” she muttered under her breath.
Dani helped her to sit up, her hand supporting the girl’s lower back. By this point she had somewhat regained her composure, only smiling goofily instead of flat out laughing at her girlfriend.
She examined the Chinese girl in her arms with care. She hummed, “You scraped your knee up a little, come here, I'll clean it up.”
Helping her to her feet, Dani led them to the bathroom, the puppy hopping around their feet and barking excitedly on the way there. It ran in front of Megan and she nearly tripped again, she was certain she would have been back on the floor if it wasn’t for Dani’s hand still steadying her. Megan paused briefly to lean down and ruffle the fur on the top of its head.
They reached the bathroom, flicking on the lights as they entered.
Megan jumped up onto the counter of the bathroom, her back to the big mirror. Daniela pulled a box of bandaids out from under the sink and set one on the counter next to Megan. She turned to grab a washcloth, wetting it with soap and water. She leaned against the cold marble of the counter, positioned between the other girl’s legs as she gently cleaned the blood and skin off of the cut.
She set the washcloth down and quickly unwrapped the bandage, applying it to Megan’s knee. She tapped her thigh when she finished, seemingly satisfied with her own work, “There, all better.”
But Megan was still sulking on the bathroom counter, most likely still a little embarrassed from her fall. Her face was flushed light pink. “It wasn’t my fault, you know. That gate – it sabotaged me.”
Daniela stretched her arms up and cupped her cheeks, holding her face gently. She traced small circles into the Hawaiian’s skin. She smoothed the hair framing Megan’s face and whispered with a laugh, “My poor baby,” her voice only slightly teasing.
She leaned up, on her tiptoes to reach the taller girl’s mouth. She pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Megan’s legs, which were still hanging off the counter, wrapped around her body to hold her in place. Her hand moved to Dani’s face, caressing her jaw.
After a few minutes of slow, gentle kisses, Megan pulled back, a hand bracing on Daniela’s chest. Dani let out a whine, clearly not wanting to separate. “Do you smell something?”
Daniela furrows her eyebrows and inhales, “Hmm, smells like something is… burning?”
Fuck.
Her eyes widened with realization. She backs up, pulling her body away from Megan’s and moving swiftly back into the kitchen. Megan hops off the counter, huffing when her leg – that was still dully hurting – makes impact with the floor. She follows the other girl closely.
“I left the stove on.” Dani groans, approaching the aforementioned appliance, taking the pan containing the sauce off the heat as quickly as she could. At this point the sauce was dark brown and bubbling, far from the cream color it was supposed to be. It was very clearly unsaveable.
Megan laughed, “I guess we’re ordering in tonight then.” She wrapped her arms around Dani, hugging her from behind.
Daniela shakes her head, “We’re a mess.”
Megan presses a chaste kiss to her head. A small, genuine smile spread across her face, “Yeah, we are.”